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“Ar dirthan'as ir elgara, ma'sula e'var vhenan.” Solas said out of the blue. Feydis blinked, confused, before hearing Sera’s response. Which was… pretty predictable, all told. It was probably a mistake to bring them both to the Storm Coast, but between Solas’ magic and Sera’s archery, they were a force to be reckoned with. His own magic tended towards violence and destruction - lots of fire. Solas was a useful counterbalance, an unsurprising emphasis on more spiritual forms of magic. Either way, he felt stuck between the two elves, particularly since the only thing they seemed to agree on was a discomfort if not outright contempt for the Dalish. Like him. Iron Bull just sighed, an unintentional mimicry of Feydis’ feelings. Feelings he tended to keep to himself. Also his words. Let them put whatever they wanted onto him. The Herald of a god-spouse he didn’t believe in; representative of all Dalish everywhere; ambassador and outlier and apostate and discrepancy and falsehood. He just wanted to close the Breach and rather wished the rest of them could focus on that larger issue. “Fenedhis lasa,” Solas spit out at last, and Feydis snorted despite himself. All three turned to stare at him - Solas with something like embarrassment, Sera and Bull in confusion, but he just shrugged.
“Okay, what’s it mean?” Sera’s curiosity was piqued now. Unfortunate. She wasn’t the type to let something like this go. He looked at Solas, considering he was the one who’d uttered the curse in the first place, but the other mage was already walking off. “What’s it mean!” Sera yelled at his back before turning to Feydis, hands on her hips and glaring. “What’d he call me?”
“He didn’t call you anything,” he pointed out. Sera just huffed. “He told you to do something.”
“Great. Hey, arse, what’d you tell me to do?!” Solas still refused to turn around, bending down to gather some elfroot in their path. “Hey!” Still being ignored, Sera whirled back on him. “Tell me what he said, Herald,” she snarled his title. He didn’t mind, considering it was a false acclaim anyway, but he didn’t want to deal with her anger for the rest of the trip.
“Roughly? ‘Go fuck yourself on the Dread Wolf’s dick.’” The tips of Solas’ ears were visibly pink now and Iron Bull laughed while Sera sputtered for a moment.
“Gross! So gross! Ugh!” She bent down and found a pebble to toss at Solas’ back. Considering her strength and the bow slung across her back, this was just a little statement, but he still tensed up as if expecting a real blow to follow. “Arse!”
“Did you have to translate it for her?” The words were quiet, directed away from the rest of their group, but still audible.
“You’re the one who said it, buddy,” Bull pointed out. Feydis just shrugged, although Solas couldn’t see it. True enough.
He started walking, moving past Solas and his apparent new obsession with perfecting the art of gathering elfroot, and after a moment everyone fell in behind him. He still heard Bull snickering every now and then, and Sera sighing. After a while she caught up to him and leaned in conspiratorially. He had a feeling he wouldn’t like where this was going. “Hey, Herald. Teach me how to say that thing.”
“What, fe-”
“Shh! Quietly. But yeah, that. How does it go?”
He hesitated for a moment, but it was an easy enough request to grant. “Fenedhis lasa.” She tried it out but stumbled after the first syllable, so he repeated it slowly. “Fen, ed, his. La, sa.” She tried it again. Got the lasa wrong so he repeated the phrase a final time and she picked it up, saying it a few times to practice.
“Good, good. Appreciate it, Herald.” She was being surprisingly genuine, but there was something mischievous in her smile when he glanced over at her and he wondered where this would lead. Oh well.
—
Everything was fine until they camped out for the night. They’d been able to go on a little longer than normal, the moonlight reflecting off the rolling ocean providing ample light even for Bull. It’d taken a while to get used to accommodating for the lower vision of non-elves, but by now it was second nature. He could go on with Solas and Sera but the three of them without enough sleep was a recipe for petty bickering and eventual disaster, so it worked out for the best this way.
Feydis set out his bedroll, Bull having offered to take first watch like normal, and he’d just settled down to try and get a few hours sleep.
“Hey, Solas?” Sera’s voice, and Feydis’ eyes snapped open. Oh, fuck. “Fenedhis lasa.” She burst into a fit of giggles right after saying it. “Fenedhis lasa, fenedhis lasa, fenedhis! Lasa!” He could hear Solas’ sigh even over the rolling waves.
“Inquisitor, why?” Came the deadpan question from the other mage, but he just pretended to be asleep. As if he could sleep with all this ruckus.
“Shut up or I’ll find you both some wolves to fuck,” Bull countered, but there was obvious mirth in his voice. Solas sighed again while Sera laughed. He pulled his thin blanket up over his head, abandoning any pretense of being asleep and just choosing to outright ignore them. He had a feeling it’d be a long night.